Duprass, assassins, golf umbrellas and course evals

Here is a collection of all the random thoughts I've had this week.

I don't know why, but lately I've remembered/been thinking about that concept in Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut about the karass and duprass.

Karass: a group of people who, often unknowingly, are working together to do God's will. (-Wikipedia); If you find your life tangled up with somebody else's life for no very logical reasons that person may be a member of your karass. (-www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/personal/bokonon.html)

Duprass: a karass that consists of only two people; the two members of a duprass live lives that revolve around each other. Never die longer than a week apart.

In the book, there's a married couple on the plane to the island, Horlick and Claire Minton, who are such a strong duprass that they die in the same millisecond.

Sounds nice.

A friend's cool away message:

"Though Bond and Bourne dwell in the same cloak-and-dagger genre, they are diametrically opposed. Bond is self-assured; Bourne doubtful and troubled. Bond is a seductive womaniser; Bourne a monogamous novice. Bond takes pleasure in killing; Bourne feels only guilt and seeks redemption for his past. Bond serves a moral authority: Bourne a corrupt establishment. Because Bond’s license to kill is justified, his films avoid questioning means and ends. Because Bourne’s license is phoney, in his films ends vs means becomes the central moral issue. Bond is a modern version of the hero with a thousand faces. Yet in an era of debatable identities, distrust of governments, and dysfunctional agencies, the faceless Jason Bourne may be just the right stuff to represent the times." I don't know where it's from, but knowing both Bond and Bourne, interesting to read.

It's been rainy almost this entire week, and I have to vent about something. Golf umbrellas are meant to shield two people from rain, one of whom is supposed to be swinging a very long, heavy, metal, end-weighted club. The golf umbrella hypothetically has enough room for this crazed bludgeoner to swing the thing and for the second person, the umbrella holder, to be out of the rain and also not get hit in the face with the club.

With that in mind, does it sound like the kind of umbrella others would appreciate you using in the intensely crowded, very small little alleys of the Financial District? Where most of the sidewalks have tiny stalls of mini-bamboo, guys hawking illegal DVD rips and fake Gucci purses from plastic bags? Where you WILL hit someone in the face with the pointy end bit of one of the umbrella spines?

No?

THEN STOP USING THEM.

As a reference to my last post, they did give us some course evaluation forms, and oh did I rip the snot out of that "professor". It felt good.